Monotasking is a Strategy for the Future by Harold Taylor

Mary's Comments:

Multitasking is a favorite topic of mine when I am teaching. I shorten some of the research by quoting a Wall Street Journal article title, "Multitasking Makes You Stupider". Since this is something we have all been raised to think is the way to work and live, it takes some remaking of our mind to convince us otherwise. Harold Taylor, a leading time management specialist in Canada, has written an article I feel you will find interesting and motivating.

Article by Harold Taylor:

According to Stefan Klein, in his book The Secret Pulse of Time (Marlow & Company, 2007) every time you turn your attention to a new problem, you interrupt your train of thought and important information vanishes from your working memory. The book, iBrain, by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan published in 2009, confirms this. In fact, not only do high-tech multitaskers have weaker memories, they tend to have poorer social skills and have trouble focusing as well. And brain scan studies reveal that if we do two tasks at the same time, we have only half of our usual brainpower devoted to each.

When we multitask, we are only half there for each activity.

Some people think they are multitasking only when they are physically doing two things at the same time. But it’s the brain activity that determines whether you are multitasking or not. For example, you could be writing an article while thinking about another task that has to be done. In that case, you are mentally multitasking. If you are solving math problems in your head or dreaming of a white Christmas while you are driving or walking or working, you are mentally multitasking. You are mentally multitasking when you are doing one thing and worrying or even thinking about something else.
 

Multitasking is more common than you might think. 91% of Americans watch TV while they eat, 26% admit that they often eat while driving, and 35% eat lunch while they’re at their desks while reading, working on a computer or making and receiving phone calls. In a 2006 survey conducted by Basex, a New York research company, 50% said they wrote emails or instant messages during conference calls.
 

Mono-tasking will be the new time management strategy for gaining control of your time and your life. For example, go walking without an iPod in your ear, eat breakfast without reading the newspaper, have a coffee in the cafeteria or coffee shop instead of at your desk, drive home without the radio turned on, participate in a meeting or school class without texting anyone, and so on. See if your personal productivity increases or decreases. You may be surprised. It may seem awkward or strange at first, but I predict that you will soon be more creative and clear headed as well as more productive. And according to recent research, you will also be under less stress, more organized, less anxious, have an improved memory, and make better decisions.

Mary's PS:

There is nothing wrong with multitasking as long as we do it intentionally and on things that we don’t have to be accurate on and we give ourselves some down time. It is just that it has become our way of life as we run, run, run…..